WORLD RELIGIONS

Detailed explanation-1: -The imperial examinations were a civil service examination system to select scholar-officials for the state bureaucracy in imperial China. Although there were imperial exams as early as the Han dynasty, the system became the major path to office only in the mid-Tang dynasty, and remained so until its abolition in 1905.

Detailed explanation-2: -Scholar officials (gentry) in the Tang dynasty served the royal family as well as the local, regional and state governments. To work in government, these scholars typically acquired academic degrees in calligraphy and Confucianism. To acquire a degree, scholars had to pass rigorous civil service examinations.

Detailed explanation-3: -In a society in which most people were illiterate, scholar-officials stood out by virtue of their reading and writing skills.

Detailed explanation-4: -2019. Shiren (scholars or scholar officials) is the collective term of the ancient Chinese intellectuals, and is also an elite social group unique to ancient China. They learned and spread knowledge; they participated in politics; they carried on and carried forward Chinese traditional culture.